SOUTHLAND – (INT) – Giving up the keys may improve highway safety for elderly drivers, but it also impacts their general well-being.

A new study finds that older adults who have stopped driving are almost two times more likely to suffer from depression and nearly five times as likely to enter a long-term care facility as those who remain behind the wheel.

The Automobile Club of America Foundation for Traffic Safety and Columbia University examined older adults who have permanently given up driving and found:

· Diminished productivity and low participation in daily life activities outside of the home;

· Risk of depression nearly doubled;

· 51 percent reduction in the size of social networks over a 13-year period;

· Accelerated decline in cognitive ability over a 10-year period; and former drivers were

- Five times as likely to be admitted to a long term care facility.

The number of drivers aged 65 and older continues to increase in the US with nearly 81 percent of the 39.5 million seniors in this age group still behind the wheel.

Story Date: July 31, 2015